TCA: Nova uncovers ‘The Bible’s Buried Secrets’

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It’s not often you hear “Nova” and “shocking” in the same sentence.

But participants in “The Bible’s Buried Secrets,” a two-hour special airing Nov. 18 on the PBS program, promised this morning that the show would trigger a fair share of controversy.

The special explores the ancient Israelites’ adoption of monotheism and seeks to explain who wrote the Hebrew Bible and what influenced them. Relying on archaeological work and biblical scholarship, the show poses provocative ideas -- including the notion that many Israelites believed that God had a wife –- and disputes literal readings of the text.

“It’s a shocking film in many ways, but it’s truth, revolutionary, and it’s as fresh as yesterday,” said William G. Dever, a noted biblical archaeologist who specializes in the history of Israel.

Carol L. Meyers, a religion professor at Duke University, said that “most of us start out as naïve Bible readers and take it at face value.”

In fact, Meyers argued, “there was no consciousness about the construction of history” when the Bible was written.

The stories of Exodus and Abraham and Sarah “are unlikely to represent real historical events, but rather there’s some kernel of ancient experience in there which has survived and which helps give identity to the people at the time,” she said.

Dever said he has participated in two dozen films about the Bible, “and most of them are dreadful.”

“They either pander to the public’s misunderstanding that the role of archaeology is to prove the Bible to be true, or, at best, they’re simply dishonest, outrageously so,” he said. “And I vowed not to make any more such films until ‘Nova’ came along. I knew their reputation, and I knew this one would be good.

“Most people simply misunderstand archaeology and the Bible. Some of them are not going to like this film, but nobody will see this film without changing their mind about the way the Bible ought to be read.”

Nobody?

Well, with one exception.

“It’s a waste of time to argue with fundamentalists,” Dever said. “And this film doesn’t do it. It’s designed for intelligent people who are willing to change their mind.”

-- Matea Gold